Valerie O’Brien, PhD

Stomach cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer in the world. Inflammation damages the stomach and causes harmful changes. First, the pre-cancerous cells start to show up. These cells cause the person’s body to make intestinal genes instead of stomach genes and can then lead to stomach cancer. However, we still have many questions about how and why pre-cancerous cells appear in the stomach in the first place. One important question is where the pre-cancerous cells come from. Scientists believe that some types of stomach cells can directly become pre-cancerous cells, but we do not fully understand which stomach cells can do this. Our research group looked at mice and humans with inflammation and damage in the stomach. We found that a stomach cell called a “pit cell” turned on intestinal genes. This meant that pit cells were pre-cancerous cells. This finding was surprising because scientists had already discovered that other cell types, not pit cells, become pre-cancerous. In our research project, we will learn more about why pre-cancerous pit cells appear. In the future we hope to develop drugs to stop these cells. We want to eventually develop ways to prevent pre-cancer from turning into cancer.